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EDI TORT AL PAGE THE ATLANTA GEORGIAN Published Every Afternoon Except Sunday By THE GEORGIAN COMPANY At 20 East Alabama St.. Atlanta, Ga. Entered as second-class matter at post Tice at Atlanta, under act of March 3. 1375. Subscription Price—Delivered by car : .er, 10 cents a week By mall. $5.00 a year Payable In advance. I A “-Disturbance of Big Busi- | ness' Might be Useful in One Way r r «• > It Might Put Some of the Really Big Men to Doing Construct ive Work, Instead of Merely Grafting on Established In dustries. , AVith a president who has promised to “DO SOMETHING,’’ with a senate and a house Democrat ie. and with the tariff the chief point of attack, we may see some very big gent lemen considerably disturbed before this administration goes out of power. It isn’t likely that the country as a whole will be disturbed. But it is quite conceivable that some of the “big men’’ who have had ven' pleasant times dipping money up by the bucket will have to change their methods. Perhaps, in the long run, it would be a good thing to give something of a shock to present conditions. A good many big and able men in this country are wasting their time. If they found it impossible to continue the simple method of making all the money they want by forming monopolies and charg ing more., they might go into some kind of useful work. There is no doubt that J. Pierpont Morgan is a very powerful and able man. If ho were compelled to do it, ho could build up in dustries, create new property and new values and add something to the country’s wealth. Thus far he has been able to make all the money he wanted merely by taking three or four businesses, putting them together, giving them a new name, issuing so many millions or hundreds of millions of stock AND LETTING THE PUBLIC PAY SO MUCH MORE AFTERWARD FOR MATERIAL CONSUMED. Os oourso, the old-fashioned way of getting rich in a hurry was attractive Where you had five men working for the public, each trying to sell cheaper than the other, the people got goods cheap. Along came one big man, put the five men together, paid each of them twice as much as his business was worth, AND THEN MADE THE PUBLIC PAY DOUBLE WITH THE POWER OF A MONOPOLY. Thai has been done in gas. in coal, in iron, in sugar, in many lines. The men that have arranged these organizations and monop olies have been powerful nun. The work that they have done has I ru ihits lar vi i\ useful work. Monopoly, when it overcharges because it is a when it uses the power of organization to rob the public, instead of using it to serve the public, is a verv had thing. But, at the same time, it is a good thing. The monopoly that robs the public today WILL BE CON TROLLED AND OWNED BY THE PUBLIC TOMORROW. The lesson that the organizers teach to the public when they prove that one single man can run the whole industry in a nation will be learned by the public, which eventually will make it clear that the nation itself can run that industry. The work that the big men have done in combining many busi nesses into one, and making the public pay tens and hundreds of millions of profits in a few years or months, has had its good as well rs Its bad side. Now, if that thing could be checked, if monopolies could be compelled to run on a basis of fair charges—regardless of the amount of stocks and bonds that the gentlemen in charge may have run off on their printing presses, and if the very big men of the country could he put to work at producing instead of combining, the country might be better off. Ln any case, we are going to see some interesting changes. A decisive vote such as that of November 5 must be followed by action of some kind. And whatever it is it will be interesting and full of meaning. What Will Happen to At lanta When a Half-Million People Live Here? •e r m Records of Underground Construction Work Are Now Woefully Lacking in Number and Practically Without Value. The argument between Edwin P. Ansley and Captain ('lay ton. head of the department of construction of the city, has brought out many interesting things. First, and most important, there are not eyough records of the things that lie two feet under the surface of the streets to show a man that he could dig a bole anywhere in the city with out encountering a gas pipe, a water pipe or a sewer. The Georgian doos not intend to take the part of Mr. Ans ley or Captain Clayton. However, just at present Atlanta is growing faster than any city of its size in the country. Tin* civic development already has been outgrown by the population. The city has not been run as a busim ss concern. The rec ords of what has been done, which woul I be invaluable when the work which will have to be done is started, have not been kept. ' The development of a city underground is of as much im portance as the development of the city above the surface. It is time a systematic, thorough record of all that lies un der the streets of Atlanta should be started. I here should be a complete record of every pipe and ev'rv *"wer. 1 liousands of dollars have been wasted and millions v whi be thrown away under the present system. On many jobs started now, three or four grades have to he followed because the men who are digging hav< no idea of what Obstacles they will encounter. Every year the cond lions will become worse .ami every year the troubles oi Captain Claxton will be increased until under- Atlanta is explored The Atlanta Georgian ■ iSsfj ‘ ' m uu 'Jk A. ) Jr-,—,,. « ' • 5? ' > ’ z/ - What Comets Are Good For A CORRESPONDENT wh< writes a good hand is.-ts me. “Weal ale 11: se net’ com ets that 1 read about in tile news papers good for, anyway'.' They seem to be popping up all around, and a great fuss made about them, but 1 haven't got a telescope to look at liii oi, .uni probable 1 couldn’t liml them if 1 had. They are neither good to eat nor to look at; they can't lower the cost of liv ing. or put motley in, any body's pocket, so what's the use of botlie: • ing with them? You astronomical sharps remind me of the old ‘phil osopher’ who stared at the stars until he fell into the ditch.'' There may lie a eonsidt ruble /lumber of persons who ft el lik. the writer of that letter. The world is full of jieoplc who m vei iook over head, and 'Who think that a dia mond on the ground is worth in finitely more than a star in the sky It is for them that this article is written. Won’t Get Much Attention. It is true tiiat the two new com ets which are now cleaving the deeps of space around the sun will probably never make enough dis play in tlie heavens to attract gen eral notice. Very likely they haven't got as much substance in them as a Broadway skyscraper. If their heads were composed of gold nug gets or diamonds nobody could lav hands upon them, unless they should strike the earth, and then they would be turned into vapor and fly away. From our point of view a comet Is worth absolutely’ nothing EXt’EPT AS A PRO VOKER OF THOUGHT, but for that purpose it is more valuable than a library full of books. All true knowledge comes from observation of nature. Every one of our great achievements on the earth is due to that alone. Books t<'ach us nothing but what other nu n have thought or done. If we want to main an advance, and find out something new, we go to na ture. Naturally enough we confine our attention principally to the phenomena of nature which are close about us. things which we can touch and trandlY But if no body had ever done anything more than that humanity would be no better than a collection of brute animals. Tin great distil ■ Jon between men and sheep is that the latter ERHIAV. NOVEMBER 15, 1912. The Victors Drawn Bv HAL COFFMAN. By GARRETT P. SERVISS. Liin > <■;»!>’. of the grass, while the . i'.oi nte - t ■!.;>;]{ also of the stars. In 1 , th i ing i f.the stats mutt '.oinks or his iiigh“r ■ nature. When he Sees that tin ■> ate a humli. <i million suns in ■•.■ J of on , he begins to cmnpreiiciid at the same time his physical littieness and liis intellee tual greatness. When lie sees a new comet come sailing out of the - dcptlis of space to visit his sun, and j ruteets that tite inhabitants of oiher worlds and - other systems : may have gazed upon tiiat comet long !■, ; :. • ':i> race began, he feels as l.ie inhabitant of some lone island dot s whfen a .-bin with H auge sails comes in'o sight over ' ■ litr lzon. At Home Anywhere. When tie analyzes the light of tlie strange:, and finds that it is made of similar substances to those which exist on the earth, he feels that in would not be altogether lost no matter where he might wander in space. Ho would be at home on the utmost verge of the universe! And. feeling this, he feels, at the same time, that he is more than an inhabitant of the little earth—lu is an inhabitant ot a vast Cosmos, And may live, by turns, in many worlds. Comets are the ships of space. Soin. - of them are limited in the range of their voyages: they skirt the shores of our solar system, and piss among the planets as little Last Love By ELLA WHEELER WILCOX. '"T'IIE first flower of the spring is not so fair * Or bright as one the ripe midsummer brings. The first faint note the forest warbler sings Is not as rich with feeling, or so rare As when, full master of his-art. the air Drowns in the liquid sea of song he flings Like silver spray from beak, and breast, and wings; I The artist's earliest effort, wrought with care, The bard's first ballad, written in his tears, Set by his later toil, seems poor and tame, j And into nothing dwindles at the test. So with the passions of fiiaturer years. Let those who will demand the first fond flame. ( Give me the heart’s last love, for that is best. ' coasting vessels travel from port to port, without venturing out upon the vast ocean beyond. Others ap pear to come from afar, across the boundless deep. They have seen strange sights: they have visited wonderful suns-, they may have traversed the marvels of the Milky Way, and looked upon the riches of tlie great star-clouds and subclus ters! Trip of Comet Astonishing. What voyage so astonishing as that of a far-traveling comet! Sup pose you could embark upon one. and, endowed with endlessness of life, visit with it a hundred or a thousand suits, suns of various magnitudes, with infinitely diversi fied systems of planets revolving around them! The suns exist and the comets exist, 'nut man, in his present form, as we know him. can only follow them in imagination. But what is the meaning of tiiat gift of imagination which enables him to follow them? Is it not the greatest of our faculties, as far as we have learned what our' faculties • tare? Reason is weak, but the wings of the imagination never tire. Wars, elections, high prices, huge har vests, good times and panicky times do not constitute the true life of man; they concern him for only a few short years which fly - by and v.mish like morning mists. The comets and the stars teach him what he really is, if only he will ponder upon their message. THE HOME PAPER Dorothy D i x tv • vV rites on Men’s Interest in Women’s Views L ’ Most Men Want : , to Tell Their Troubles to Wo men, But Few of Them Care to Hear O t her F oiks’ J Troubles. A YOUNG woman who is en yY. gaged to be married and who is, therefore, contemplating man at arm’s length, so to speak, instead of from long range, has just discovered a masculine peculiarity that has greatly puzzled her. It is her sweetheart’s lack of in terest in her point of view, except as it affects himself, and the fact that lie grows distrait and bored when she tries to talk to him about subjects that are of importance to her alone. She says she listens joyously and is absorbed while he discounses by the hour about his life, his hopes, the people he knows and the suc cesses he makes, and the compli ments he gets from his employers, but that when she starts in to ’tell him something about herself, her* business, her plans and hopes and successes he yawns in her face. He Does Love Her. She knows it isn’t because the man doesn't love her, because he does. She knows it isn't because they are not congenial, because they have the same tastes, and he is keenly interested as long as the conversation keeps to topics in which they are mutually concerned. It’s only when she talks of things that belong to herself alone that his attention wavers and he begins to look at his watch. The girl wants to know why this is thus, and if this attitude on the part of her sweetheart indicates any lack of affection in him. Certainly net! And ft isn’t an eccentricity of her particular man. It’s a sex characteristic. All men are built that way. and there is no other jar in life that a woman gets that so completely knocks her ego tism into smithereens as the knowl edge that no man ever loves her enough to want to know the real woman inside of her—the woman that is made up of her past life and her innermost thoughts and feel ings. Decline of the Turk By REV. THOMAS B. GREGORY. THE Turkish power never re covered from the blow that It received at the siege of Vien na. In 1683, at the hands of So bieski, of Poland, and when on the back of that disaster there came to it, in 1717, the loss of Belgrade, it was already as good as settled that its doom was sealed. It might lin ger for generations, but its virility was gone. It was no longer a se rious menace to the white man’s rule in -Europe. Between the insurrections of Ja nissaries and Mamilukes at home and the batterings from French men, Englishmen and Russians from the outside, the Turks were forced to witness the slow, but steady and Inevitable decline of their once tremendous poxver in Eu rope. Piece by piece the sultan’s Euro pean territory was taken from him, and by 1854 it would have been easy for the powers to have put a quietus for good and for all upon the troublesome importation. The “Sick Man” was completely at the mercy of the quartet of nations— France, Russia, Austria and Great Britain—but, instead of doing their duty, they resolved that the alien institution which had for so long a .time disturbed Europe should not be ended. The document x in which this hypocritical and foolish agreement v. - as set forth is known as the “Treaty’ of Vienna,” xvhich was signed by the diplomats Aprli 8, 1854. Few proceedings more infambus ever disgraced the pages of his tory. For hundreds of years the Turks had been breeders of dis cord among the peoples of Europe. Religions fanatics, polygamous in their domestic life, and in pretty Bv DOROTHY DIX A man is contented with a sur face view of a woman. He takes her at what she is, or what he thinks she is. He has no desire to know what has made her what she is, and no curiosity about what ex periences she has passed through unless he suspects them of having been evil ones. Doesn’t Want to Hear. He doesn’t want to hear any sto ries about her childhood, or her school days, and if she tries to tel! him about the time when she was a little girl In pinafores with her hair in pigtails, or relates to him the thrilling adventures she had at boarding school, he is sure to re member a pressing engagement that calls him away from the talk fest. , On the contrary, there is nothing under the sun that has ever hap pened to the man she loves that is not of burning, throbbing heart in terest to a woman. She will sit up, spellbound, by the week while her sweetheart monologues along about the time when he was a little freckle-faced boy with warts on his hands, and of how he used to go to the old swimming holes, and snare birds, and so on. She will thrill over his college escapades, and sim ply sit up and beg for more while he maunders on about his busi ness, and what he said to the book . keeper and the bookkeeper said to him. She is Flattered. No man hesitates to take up the time and attention of any woman friend by telling her of his troubles or of his achievements, and the woman is flattered and pleased by this evidence of the man’s confi dence. And she’s interested, too. but no woman would be foolish enough to expect any man, who w asn't her lawyer or her doctor and paid to listen to her affairs, to give ear for more than five minutes to her tale of woe, or to rejoice with V her in any success. nearly every respect the very op posite of Europeans, they had been a thorn in the side of the conti nent from the day on which they had squatted upon its soil. Not only so, but, predisposed by their fatalistic faith to look with contempt upon all modern progress, they acted the part of the dog in the manger, doing nothing them selves and unwilling that others should do anything for them. There is a chance now" for th* “powers" to atone, in part at least, for their silly and unwarranted ac tion in 1854. Once again the “Sid Man” is in their hands, and if they will they can permit him to die. It looks as though, conscience smitten in their thought of the l ist they were 'going to do just that thing. The gallant little nations who have most severely felt the Turk's atrocities have about driven their ancient enemy to the wall, and the opinion is abroad that th* big nations are going to permit th* Victors to reap the full reward of their valor by driving the Turk back to his old stamping grounds in Asia. By the time this appears in print. Constantinople may have fallen, and, after a period of four hun dred and fifty-nine years, passed back again into the hands of the Eastern Christians. And then it will appear whether the diplomats have or have not outgrown their old-time hypocrisy and greed. If they have, it will soon app that the day of the Turk in Eu rope is over, if not, then the < farce will be repeated, and wars and rumors of wars, wounds mi bloodshed and trouble gener-aio shall continue over a matter ! * should have been settled genera tions ago